The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: megimoo on July 18, 2009, 01:25:48 PM
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Governments will soon have, for the first time in history, the means to identify, monitor and track citizens anywhere in the world in real time
http://www.cbsnews.com/
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.
Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Embedding identity documents _ passports, drivers licenses, and the like _ with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials. Increasingly, they are promoting it as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent.
He filmed his drive-by heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to erode privacy.
Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.
"Little Brother," some are already calling it _ even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.
But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.
The key to getting such a system to work, these opponents say, is making sure everyone carries an RFID tag linked to a biometric data file.
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Hi,
I am sure that before long someone will sell a passport wallet that is coated with aluminum foil or something. Either that or carry so much stuff you overload the guys computer.
The entire idea is scary.
regards,
5412
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The aluminum foil / Faraday cage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage) was talked about a few years ago when the RFID chip in the passports was first introduced. There are even wallets with built in Faraday cages. (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8cdd/)
Passport RFID Blocker (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/910f/?cpg=ab)
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You could also simply stick it in the microwave for about five seconds.........the RF generated by the magnetron tube will fry the chip quickly.
doc
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If you have your GPS enabled on your cell phone they can track it whether or not its moving as well.
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It's 11 PM and do you know where your daughters are?
We do.
:evillaugh:
Space Command- all your ISR belong to us.